Saturday, September 30, 2017

American theologians offer plea on behalf of Francis

In an article written for the Italian daily, La Stampa,
theologians Dr. Robert Fastiggi and Dr. Dawn Eden Goldstein have
entered a rather creative defense plea on behalf of the bishop in white
who stands accused of heresy.

Specifically, the two contend that one of the most controversial texts in Amoris Laetitia (article 303) is actually orthodox, and that the English translation (below) provided by the Holy See is simply deficient.

Yet conscience can do more than recognize
that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall
demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty
what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God,
and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God
himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while
yet not fully the objective ideal. (see AL 303)

“When read in its original Latin, one [the above] contested passage
in the document has a significantly different meaning than it does in
the official English translation,” Fastiggi and Goldstein object.
One small problem…
Though an “official” (or typical) Latin version of the exhortation eventually was created for entry into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis more than one year after its publication, the “original” text of Amoris Laetitia was not Latin.
[For a list of the eight languages in which AL was originally published, see HERE.]
[For Fr. John Zuhldorf’s commentary on this fact, see HERE.]What’s the difference? I say “official,” you say “original.” Let’s call the whole thing off!
The difference in this case; in particular, as it concerns
chronology, is actually huge, but we’ll come back to this momentarily.
For now, let’s take a closer look at the excuse du jour; cutting right to the chase.
Fastiggi’s and Godlstein’s plea zeroes-in on the Latin word oblationem as they contend:

Our translation from the Latin shows that
Pope Francis is clearly not saying that conscience may rightly discern
that an objectively immoral act is not immoral. Instead, he is noting
that in some complex and irregular situations a person’s conscience will
recognize that God is asking for a generous response, indeed
an oblationem, or offering, that moves in the right direction even
though it does not completely rectify the objective irregularity of the
situation.

How did they arrive at this conclusion?
The defense team of Fastiggi and Godlstein proposed what they
consider to be a more accurate translation of the Latin text under
review as follows:

This conscience, however, can not only
recognize a given situation to be objectively at variance with the
general mandate of the Gospel; it can also recognize sincerely and
honestly what may be the generous response owed to God in the present
circumstances; and this same firm conscience can come to understand with
a certain moral certitude that this is the offering that God himself is
asking amid the mass of impediments, although it may not yet be the
perfect objective model.

Go ahead, read it again if you must.
I know… you were expecting more, but that’s it. This is the version of the text that supposedly gets Jorge off the heresy hook.
Though it’s hardly necessary for most readers of this space, let’s go ahead and break down the “not guilty” version, shall we.
First and most obvious point: When it comes to such matters as
marriage and adultery, the Gospel (i.e., the teaching of Our Lord
offered in His very own words) provides far more than just a “general
mandate.”
This much is entirely obvious, and it is precisely in reducing these teachings to such that Amoris Laetitia paves the way for its heresy and blasphemy.
Even in the translation provided by Fastiggi and Godlstein, the following is plain:
– The text points to “a given situation” that is “objectively at
variance” with what Our Lord taught, as recorded in the Gospels, about
marriage and adultery.
Simple.
– It states that those in such a situation can “recognize sincerely
and honestly what may be the generous response owed to God in the
present circumstances.”
If the sentence stopped here, it may be taken to mean that
those presently in an adulterous relationship can recognize that they
must cease persisting in it, and this is true. But alas, the sentence
goes on!
For our purposes, we need to see how the text of AL (again, the
translation given by Fastiggi and Goldstein) defines “the generous
response owed to God in the present circumstances.”
We find this definition, plain as day, in the rest of the sentence:
– “The generous response … is the offering that God himself is asking amid the mass of impediments, although it may not yet be the perfect objective model.”
Fastiggi and Goldstein, in their reading, even plainly admit that the “objective irregularity of the situation” remains even after the generous response is given.
Let’s be clear: The so-called “perfect model” of marriage is that
which is in accord with Divine Law. Our Lord did not make a Divine
Suggestion. What is here called “objective irregularity,” therefore, is
more properly called “objective mortal sin.”
Fastiggi’s and Goldstein’s failure stems from their having swallowed
the first crucial error that we identified in this portion of Amoris Laetitia; namely, the false idea that the teaching of Our Lord concerning marriage and adultery is simply a “general mandate.”
All of that said, the defense plea offered by Fastiggi and Goldstein
fails perhaps even more miserably as a matter of common sense. Recall
their main objection:

Our translation from the Latin shows that
Pope Francis is clearly not saying that conscience may rightly discern
that an objectively immoral act is not immoral.

Clearly? I’ll give you clearly….
It is an indisputable part of the historical record that in the time between Amoris Laetitia being
published and the eventual creation of a Latin text, right up to the
present day, Francis has made no effort whatsoever to insist upon, or
even hint at, the spin provided by Fastiggi and Goldstein; on the
contrary, and this even after being implored to do so multiple times by
many highly respected individuals.
And now for the most tragic part of this tale:
Robert Fastiggi is a Professor of Systematic Theology at Sacred Heart
Major Seminary in Detroit, MI, and Dawn Goldstein is a Professor of
Dogmatic Theology at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, CT.
So much for neo-con claims about a new crop of orthodox priests currently in formation.

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Go forth confidently then, you knights, and repel the foes of the cross of Christ with a stalwart heart. Know that neither death nor life can separate you from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, and in every peril repeat, "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." What a glory to return in victory from such a battle! How blessed to die there as a martyr! Rejoice, brave athlete, if you live and conquer in the Lord; but glory and exult even more if you die and join your Lord. Life indeed is a fruitful thing and victory is glorious, but a holy death is more important than either. If they are blessed who die in the Lord, how much more are they who die for the Lord!

How secure, I say, is life when death is anticipated without fear; or rather when it is desired with feeling and embraced with reverence! How holy and secure this knighthood and how entirely free of the double risk run by those men who fight not for Christ! Whenever you go forth, O worldly warrior, you must fear lest the bodily death of your foe should mean your own spiritual death, or lest perhaps your body and soul together should be slain by him.

Indeed, danger or victory for a Christian depends on the dispositions of his heart and not on the fortunes of war. If he fights for a good reason, the issue of his fight can never be evil; and likewise the results can never be considered good if the reason were evil and the intentions perverse. If you happen to be killed while you are seeking only to kill another, you die a murderer. If you succeed, and by your will to overcome and to conquer you perchance kill a man, you live a murderer. Now it will not do to be a murderer, living or dead, victorious or vanquished. What an unhappy victory--to have conquered a man while yielding to vice, and to indulge in an empty glory at his fall when wrath and pride have gotten the better of you!

But what of those who kill neither in the heat of revenge nor in the swelling of pride, but simply in order to save themselves? Even this sort of victory I would not call good, since bodily death is really a lesser evil than spiritual death. The soul need not die when the body does. No, it is the soul which sins that shall die.

The knight of Christ, I say, may strike with confidence and die yet more confidently, for he serves Christ when he strikes, and serves himself when he falls. Neither does he bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister, for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of the good. If he kills an evildoer, he is not a mankiller, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil. He is evidently the avenger of Christ towards evildoers and he is rightly considered a defender of Christians. Should he be killed himself, we know that he has not perished, but has come safely into port.

Once he finds himself in the thick of battle, this knight sets aside his previous gentleness, as if to say, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord; am I not disgusted with your enemies?" These men at once fall violently upon the foe, regarding them as so many sheep. No matter how outnumbered they are, they never regard these as fierce barbarians or as awe-inspiring hordes. Nor do they presume on their own strength, but trust in the Lord of armies to grant them the victory.

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"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith?The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ..."You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. "Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."